Tigers' pitcher Justin Verlander looks at the ball as Pablo Sandoval rounds the bases in the 3rd inning during the World Series game 1 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012.

The biggest non-Sandoval at-bat was Marco Scutaro's in which he took Verlander to eight pitches before smoking a full-count, two-out liner in the third inning that preceded the Panda's second of three homers.

Verlander might be the best pitcher in the game, but the Giants wore him out. The supposedly unbeatable Tigers ace got beat in Game 1, and the World Series took a distinctly Giants turn.

"We fouled off some good pitches and put the ball in play," Giants hitting coach Hensley Meulens said. "I guess that was something Verlander was not used to. My hat goes off to our hitters because they took the game plan to the field today."

The game plan was to extend at-bats, get Verlander's pitch count up and knock him out early.

Easier said than done. Nevertheless: check, check and check.

Verlander retired eight of his first nine batters. But only four of his final 10.

Here are the seven plate appearances that did him in:

1. Sandoval saw three pitches, two fastballs in the mid-90s sandwiched around a changeup, and Verlander made a drastic mistake by throwing a pitch nearly eye-high, which is right in Sandoval's wheelhouse. Sandoval homered for a 1-0 lead.

"My favorite was the first one because it was an 0-2 count and a 95-mph fastball in his zone," said Meulens, acknowledging Sandoval's zone is different from others'. "It's hard to hit those pitches anyway, but at 95, that's impressive."

2. With two outs in the third inning, Angel Pagan hit a ball off third base. Literally. Double. It stunned Miguel Cabrera. But apparently not Pagan.

Ever hit a bag with a ball before, Angel?

"Tons of 'em," he said. "Yeah, a lot of ugly-finders."

3. What ensued was another legendary at-bat by Scutaro, lasting eight pitches. Verlander threw two 96-mph fastballs, followed by three curves and two more fastballs, both at 98 mph, both fouled off. On his final pitch, Verlander tried to sneak an 88-mph slider past Scutaro, whose liner up the middle almost knocked the pitcher's block off.

"It's hard, man," Scutaro said of facing Verlander. "In my first at-bat (in the first inning), it was 2-1, nobody on. A fastball count. He threw me a slider (result: groundout). Next AB, I was looking off-speed, and he kept throwing me fastball in, fastball in, fastball in.

"C'mon, man. It's no fair.

"If you're looking for a breaking ball and he throws you a fastball ... I mean, he throws so hard. So with two strikes, you just try to see the ball and hit it."

7. Two outs later, Barry Zito slapped a 2-2 fastball to left for an RBI single.

From there, Pagan ran Verlander's pitch count from 90 to 98 before making the final out in the fourth, and Verlander exited for a pinch-hitter.

"Obviously, I fouled off a lot of pitches," Pagan said. "It's good. You want to get that pitch count up early and get him out as soon as possible because we all know what he's capable of. It was tough, but we beat him with some good at-bats and early runs."

Verlander is 0-3 with a 7.20 ERA in three World Series starts, the first two coming in 2006 against the Cardinals. In the press box on Wednesday, ex-Cards manager Tony La Russa saw it all. Now employed by Major League Baseball, La Russa was asked to explain Verlander's night.

"The way you can explain it, if he pitched against them 10 times, they'd have trouble scoring against him eight. It's why you play the games," La Russa said. "It's more attributable to the Giants competing every pitch of every inning. You can't take anything from (Verlander's) greatness, but you compete and sometimes you break through. Terrific win for the Giants, but (the Tigers) will be ready tomorrow."